Strawberry Matcha Chocolate Bark
Congrats! You made it to the end of 2019! To celebrate I made you this (recipe, sorry!) for fruity, earthy awesome strawberry and matcha swirled white chocolate bark. It’s awesome for last minute dinner party contributions, and will definitely impress with the rich and unexpected flavor combination. It blends together the green, leafy, and almost bitter flavors of matcha with sweet and slightly acidic strawberry. Plus it gets topped with more pops of strawberry flavor and crunchy pistachios to play off matcha’s deep green color.
The only ‘hard’ part in making this recipe may be just finding the strawberry and matcha components at your supermarket. Freeze dried strawberries are often found in the snack or trail mix section. Pick those up and grind them to a powder in seconds with a little personal smoothie blender or even a well cleaned coffee grinder. Matcha, powdered green tea leaves, can be found in the tea section. It often comes in small containers as this is a higher quality product. Be careful to not buy green tea in any other form like tea bags, loose tea or tea blends. For this recipe, it has to be straight matcha like pictured here. If you have enough time, you can always just order it online too like here: Strawberries Matcha
I know this is probably the furthest reason for why you might want to make or eat this swirly chocolate bark, but it is nice to know that the strawberries, matcha, and pistachios here all are great sources of antioxidants. We all know green tea provides health benefits, but matcha does even more so because when you eat or drink it, you are consuming the entire tea leaf.
Hope you enjoy this fun and festive treat to share with your fellow delicious food lovers this holiday!
Strawberry Matcha Chocolate Bark
Makes about 4 cups of broken up bark
2 cups (325g) white chocolate, chips or chopped bar
5 tsp. freeze dried strawberry powder
2 tsp. matcha powder
¼ cup (80g) pistachios, toasted and chopped
¼ cup (6g) freeze dried strawberries, chopped
Place ¾ of the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 second spurts 4 times, for a total of 2 minutes, stirring between each. Add the remaining ¼ of the chocolate and stir until totally melted. Split the chocolate into 2 bowls.
Mix the matcha into one and the strawberry powder into the other.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Plop small amounts of each chocolate on to the sheet, alternating each. Use a spoon or spatula to swirl the colors together. Be careful not to mix too much or the colors will become muddled.
Sprinkle the pistachios and strawberry pieces on top. Let sit at room temperature until set.
Break into pieces to serve. Store covered.
Notes: Strawberry powder can be easily made by grinding freeze dried strawberries in a clean coffee grinder or personal smoothie maker. Make sure you are using pure matcha powder, and not sweetened matcha drink mix. Also make sure you are buying real white chocolate, and not ‘white chips’ or something like that. The label should say ‘white chocolate’ and may say ‘made with cocoa butter’.